I first spoke with Sheck Exley in the summer of 1991. I had begun publishing aquaCORPS: The Journal for Technical Diving, a year earlier and I was working out of the office at Capt. Billy Deanâ€™s dive shop in Key West, Florida, the first technical diving training center in the United States. â€śTechnical divingâ€ť, a term we had just coined to describe this new style of diving, was just in its infancy.

Judging from the recent spate of PADI ads, weâ€™re in the midst of a new â€śTec Revolutionâ€ť. The last one was reportedly when the training behemoth launched its TecRec program 2000, or so the blog said.

Buddies are not essential for a safe dive. On the contrary, buddies often increase the risk of a dive, either directly through unpredictable or unreliable actions, or indirectly, through an unfounded belief that security is enhanced by numbers alone, regardless of the training or state of mind of the buddy. In most instances, a competent solo diver would be much safer than the average buddy dive.

Every time I think of deep diving, both good and bad memories surface together in my mind. I can recall those exciting evenings over 15 years ago when my friends and I would drive from Jacksonville to Eagleâ€™s Nest just for an evening dive. We were full of anticipation back then for the promise each dive held. Among other things, these dives offered the challenge of testing ourselves against narcosis, which we viewed as an obstacle to be overcome, so that we could be â€śgood deep diversâ€ť. Mastering the depths was extremely satisfying to my ego.